Starlight and Sunshine
by raspberryseedz
Summary: "Now stop actin' like a worrywart and sit with me." Buzz and Jessie both get up early.  Pre-Toy Story 3. One-shot.


A/N: I… I don't know what this is. I've had Buzz and Jessie on the brain ever since seeing Toy Story 3 and, to be honest, I'm not really sure why. I remembered their cute little minute of interaction at the end of Toy Story 2, but when I was a kid I kinda felt it was tacked on (I didn't care for Woody/Bo either… I was a cold-hearted child), and now that I've grown up their relationship kinda fascinates me somehow. Is it the sweet, awkward innocence they display towards each other? The fact that they're kind of a mismatch in a franchise that tends to pair characters from the same toy line. Is it the contrasting aspects of their personalities or the similar aspects that somehow make them work? I don't know. I just had to write something. Why is this scene taking place? Why are they both up so early? What was going on before/after? Is there even a point to this one shot? I haven't the slightest. I really just sat down and wrote what came to me, so…take from it what you will.

_Starlight and Sunshine_

"Ya know something, Buzz," the left corner of Jessie's mouth quirked up into a crooked smile. "For a guy who likes adventure you sure worry a lot about rules."

"Technically speaking," Buzz began, "there's no actual regulation forbidding midnight excursions on the windowsill, or rather…" he twisted to steal a glance at the green, luminescent numbers decorating Andy's alarm clock. "Five twenty-seven excursions on the windowsill… I just, um, I'd advise caution due to… unfortunate personal experience."

Jessie laughed warmly, her back pressed against the left side of the window casing and her legs folded under her. "Aw, I ain't falling out, Buzz. 'Sides," she uncrossed her legs and tapped one boot against the shingled roof encasing the Davis' garage one floor below. "It's not like there's much of a drop. Now stop actin' like a worrywart and sit with me."

If Buzz hesitated a little in situating himself next to the cowgirl it wasn't due to some longstanding window-phobia.

"You think I'm a worrywart?" he said plainly.

"Nah," she playfully nudged him with the toe of her boot. "Just fun to tease."

Buzz's eyebrows furrowed. "Between comments like that and the artwork Woody keeps leaving on my helmet I'm inclined to believe it."

She let out a low giggle. "Well, replacing his hat with that folded paper one was a pretty sly little comeback there, Ranger."

Buzz grinned at the memory: Woody, slack-jawed and still half asleep, patting at the paper concoction sitting on his head and slowly removing it in horror while everyone looked on in various states of awe and amusement. Then it dawned on him.

"Wait a minute, nobody knew that was me!"

She lifted one hand in an almost solemn gesture. "Your secret's safe here, pardner. Though you so much as _think_ about messin' with _this_," she pointed at her own headwear, "and you're gonna wish that helmet of yours was glued shut."

Buzz's features arranged themselves in an expression that almost looked audacious. "Well, ma'm, keep that deal and it's a secret." He started as soon as the words left his mouth, whatever assurance he had a moment ago now gone. "I… I mean, keep that _secret_ and it's a… it's a deal."

It was Jessie's turn to shoot him a challenging look. She pushed off her seat lounging across the windowsill and settled on her knees, suddenly very close, one arm extended at the elbow. He grasped her hand. She shook it energetically.

Jessie pivoted into a sitting position again, letting her legs dangle out the window. Buzz folded his hands, a lump forming in his throat, all too aware that the mere centimeter separating them could be closed by an involuntary twitch. She leaned back a little, "It's beautiful, ain't it?" And for the first time Buzz noticed the orange haze of dawn creeping into the deep purple of the night sky.

"I hadn't seen the sun rise in a while," Jessie's voice was uncharacteristically soft, her eyes strangely far away. "Been too tired to get up this early I guess."

" We've had quite a bit of work this summer," Buzz reasoned. He didn't dare address the underlining wistfulness that had crept into the conversation, the telling fact that time was ticking on, the workflow was changing, a different kind of twilight was coming.

"Hey, lookit," she nudged his arm, "You can still see some stars out. Starlight and sunshine at the same time…"

"Well, scientifically speaking the sun is a star. The only reason you can't see other stars during the day is due to the sun's physical closeness granting it stronger radiation. By definition the two are synonymous."

Jessie's eyes rolled but her smile remained warm. "You know what I meant, Buzz."

He smiled sheepishly at her, hoping the silence that had lapsed didn't mean she was somehow offended. For someone who seemed to thrive on laughter and action she seemed oddly content now, quietly gazing at the blended sky, one leg swinging. She finally said, "You ever wish you were a real Space Ranger? Flyin' around those stars all time, closer to 'em than anybody else gets to be?"

"Sometimes," he replied, his mind recalling a different time, when he was a different person. How hard had it hurt to be knocked down to earth. How glad he was now that he didn't have to be limited to the cool darkness of space.

"But then I couldn't sit on a windowsill with a cowgirl and watch night and day coexist at the same time. Not a lot of people get that experience."

Jessie had to agree.


End file.
